Fountains Of Wayne’s Chris Collingwood Knows You Well: The Washington County Fair

The great Fountains Of Wayne just issued their fifth album in a career that dates back 15 years. Sky Full Of Holes (Yep Roc) was recorded by the band—vocalist/guitarist Chris Collingwood, multi-instrumentalist Adam Schlesinger, guitarist Jody Porter and drummer Brian Young—in New York City at the studio Schlesinger co-owns, and it may be the quartet’s best effort to date. Fountains Of Wayne is currently on tour, but Collingwood and Schlesinger will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with the dynamic duo.

Collingwood: My grandparents had a farm outside of Pittsburgh, and every summer of my childhood we spent a week at the County Fair in Washington, Pa. There were carnies, sideshow attractions, 4-H milkshakes, craft shows, tractor pulls, demolition derbies and an endless line of livestock barns with cattle, sheep, rabbits, goats and chickens. My brother and I would bring sleeping bags and crash out on a bed of hay in an empty stall in the angus barn. Our uncle Kirk took us on a shitty ride called the Music Express, which just flung you really fast in a circle while they blasted Southern rock. One night, Kirk and his friend stole a golf cart from the security office and strapped my brother and me in the back where the golf bags go, then did donuts all up and down the path from the arena to the cattle barns. I was too young to figure out the details, but it was pretty obvious they got in serious trouble. These days, they’d probably go to prison for shit like that.

Video after the jump.